Advertisement
Bolivia's altiplano covers much of the country and hosts a plethora of surmountable peaks. One of the best known is Huayna Potosi; firstly because it is easily accessible from La Paz and secondly because it tops the magic 6000m barrier. Standing at 6088m above sea level, the mountain is supposedly one of the easiest 6000m+ climbs in the world and for that reason has become a major backpacker draw. It was always my intention to do a substantial mountain climb at some point on my RTW trip, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I signed up with a La Paz based company called Bolivian Journeys for the two day climb; the challenge that ensued was far beyond my reckoning.
After being emphatically assured by Bolivian Journeys that I would be provided with an English speaking guide and that I would not be expected to carry more than 10 kilos up the mountain, I was quite surprised to find myself up at the 4700m base camp lugging a 16 kilo backpack up to the start of the trail; apparently due to a shortage of porters in La Paz. The first day involved a hike up scree and boulder covered slopes to the 5130m rock camp. It doesn’t sound like much but it was three hours of hard, tedious work; each foot had to be carefully placed to avoid a nasty tumble. Climbing at that altitude makes every breath a labor and every meter gained felt like the equivalent of ten at sea level. But the effort was well worth it; the views were incredible, aside from the mountains and the expanse of the altiplano a glacier was flowing down the mountain adjacent to the path. At every stop I sat in awe of the serenity and absolute calm of the surroundings.
We arrived into the rock camp at about one o’clock and set up camp, since the assent wasn’t to be until the following morning I spent the afternoon getting to know my climbing buddy in our titchy two man tent. He was called Marty DeMers from North Carolina USA (not sure why Americans add on the last bit - oh well), turns out he had over thirteen years climbing experience and seemed a bit skeptical about my ability to ascend the summit. It was decided after a brief swap of life stories that I would benefit from a little tutoring on glacial ice climbing before making my first attempt in the dark, luckily the only English speaking guide on the mountain happened to be in our camp and spent an hour or so showing me the ropes. With encouragement from Marty and what I think were words of encouragement from our Spanish speaking guide I felt much more confident about the next mornings climb.
That night we went to bed almost as soon as it got dark since being snuggled in a sleeping bag was the only way to stay warm. Neither of us got much shut eye, at over five thousand meters the shallow breaths that you naturally take in your sleep don’t provide sufficient oxygen for your body, consequently your heart starts pounding against your chest at an accelerated rate to try and make up for it, this isn’t exactly congenial for a good nights sleep. Not that it really mattered since we had to get up at midnight to prepare for the climb.
It took us about an hour to put on all the necessary gear and have a hot drink. Once on the ice poor Marty’s torch ran out of batteries so he had to do the assent between the guide and I, sharing our light. We were all roped together using climbing harnesses and wore vicious looking crampons and ice boots to secure us to the ice, I had so many layers on I must have gained a good inch of girth! Within the first five minutes it hit me that this was no walk in the park, the glacier was very steep and the ever increasing altitude was making it harder and harder to breath. I knew this was going to be a massive challenge, I was finding myself extremely out of breath every few hundred meters and would have to stop our motley procession to recuperate, which was frustrating since I knew I was holding the other two back; we were tied together after all. May be I could have made it all the way to the summit, but for one factor, the weather, just after we left the rock camp it started to snow which is practically unheard of in Bolivia’s dry season. As the climb progressed the weather worsened and intensified, about three hours into the climb the snow flurries reduced our vision to only a few feet and we started to see other climbers give up and go back. It was so cold that the water in my backpack froze solid which was a pain. At this point most of out climbing was done sideways with the use of an ice axe and in all honesty I was practically being dragged up the mountain by the other two. Luckily my guide and I both agreed that I had neither the experience nor the will to carry on in those conditions. I roped up to a young French climber and his guide to make the decent back to rock camp. Marty said to me "don’t be a hero Will, it’s not worth it" - damn right!
I had reached 5700m on my climb, the highest I’ve ever been. The climb down took a couple of hours, by the time I reached rock camp it was howling a blizzard and I was quite happy to see the inside of my tent. I woke up just before seven and went outside to see that much of the sky had cleared. I was just in time to see an incredible, spectacular sunrise over a nearby mountain which bathed the entire valley in a crimson glow; I looked over my shoulder to see the summit still shrouded in cloud and couldn´t help feeling a little smug.
Marty made it to the summit along with one other climber out of over twenty that had set off that morning. He said that it was "the hardest climb he had ever done" which made me feel a little better. The climb back to base camp was as arduous as the climb up and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see the back seat of a car. Before and since my attempt on the summit I haven’t seen a single cloud over Huayna Potosi. It was an interesting and challenging experience but I don’t think I’ll be putting my body through that kind of abuse again any time soon, well maybe not too soon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0618s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Nick
non-member comment
Worse agency in La Paz
We did their 5 days trek and climb of the Huayna Potosi starting july 9, 2008, avoid this agency and the agency of his brother Club Andino Boliviano at all cost. They had nothing for lunch, poor breakfast and dinner. We lost the guide on the second because he was not waiting for anybody. They made us pay every nights for the campsite and refuges. Probably my worst experience in Bolivia. The claims on their website are lies, they don't have any private drivers, they made us wait for a taxi for the return. We also had to fight with the porters to have our backpack carried as stated when we paid. They finally accepted to carry half of our stock. This agency is overpriced for what they offers.